Summit of Courage
by Zudit
Summary: Set after "Salvage". Ryan and Sharpay are settling comforably into their new life, until a monster from before returns.
1. Prologue

What is at the summit of courage

I think

is freedom

-Paula Giddings


	2. Chapter 1

The dining room table was old and looked like it had seen better days, the scratches telling a long and rich history. The carpets that covered the wood floor gave off a worn, lived-in feeling. Somewhere in another room the _Rubber Soul _album played, adding to the warm, electic feel of the house.

Beverley came into the room, setting a pot of soup on the table and going back to the stove to set a dish of green beans and a plate of chicken on the table. Every child's glass was filled with milk before Beverley even sat down. "Now," she began, "who wants to pray?"

Beverley insisted on prayer before meals and church on Sundays, desperatly trying to instill the knowledge that God had not forgotten them. Ryan and Sharpay looked down at the table. The tradition was a new and somewhat uncomfortable one, even for the outgoing twins. What did one say to God? At the silence, Beverley smiled and chose one the children, "Sharpay, would you do us the honor?"

"Yes, ma'am," Sharpay replied, beginning her simple litany. "Lord, please bless this bountiful meal that we are about to receive. Amen."

Amens were echoed and the children began dishing up with thanks offered to Beverley as they did. The phone rang, and Beverley quietly got up and answered it. "Hello?"

"Who is it?" implored the twin's foster sister, Winona, "Is it Jesse?"

"Yes, this is she," said Beverley into the phone, waving Winona away while her foster siblings began to tease her. Beverley shushed them. "H-he is? He is. How soon? Uh-huh. Well, what about the twins?" Ryan and Sharpay looked up then. "Right. Yes. He does? Well, I won't allow it, not until much later at least, Ryan's barely recovered. Yes. All right, thank you. All right. You too. Goodbye."

Beverley turned against the wall and sighed. The children all got up slowly wandering over to their foster mother, Ryan taking three-year-old Mickey up in his arms. Sharpay placed a gentle hand on Beverley's arm, while Winona looked up at her, "What's wrong?"

Beverley sighed.


	3. Chapter 2

Beverley would not speak about the telephone call. Instead, she sent the children back to finish their dinner and when they were finished, called the twins in to help her clean up. Normally, Sharpay did not do dishes, but things had changed a lot since that fall. While that summer had definately improved her attitude, the past few months had improved her work ethic. She would help Beverley with general housework and would do her best to help with the care of Mickey and Winona.

Ryan offered to wash while Sharpay dried and soon a simple train was started. The Evans twins chose to stay silent, knowing that Beverley had something on her mind, and she had always told them things when she was ready and never before.

The silence was almost unbearable. It hung in the air, heavy and thick. Ryan felt like he was choking and one look at Sharpay showed that she was feeling the same.

She raised her eyebrows at him and jerked her head towards Beverley. _Ask her_, the look said. He shook his head. She repeated the action. He still shook his head.

"You two can stop having silent conversations now, if you want," said Beverley. She set a dish down in the cupboards and looked up at the twins.

Sharpay fidgeted.

Ryan coughed.

Beverley continued to wait.

"What was that phone call about?" Ryan finally asked.

Beverley sighed again, hung her head for a moment and then looked up, beckoning the twins into a hug. She wrapped her arms around them, kissed both of their heads. "Your father is out next month. He wants to see you two."


	4. Chapter 3

Sharpay turned silently from Beverley at the news. She drew in a breath, and walked up the stairs and into the room she shared with Winona.

Ryan stood silently, before falling back into Beverley's arms.

"I don't want to see him," he whispered to her.

"I know, sweetheart," she said, stroking the back of his head, "Not until you're ready. Not until he's ready."

Ryan leaned back from her embrace and sat down down on the stool in the corner, generally used for Mickey's time-outs. He took off his hat and ran a hand gingerly through his hair, careful to avoid the still-tender cuts. "What if...what if he wants us back? What if he tries to take us away from you?"

Beverley sighed. She had been through this situation many times before. Sat with all sorts of children in the kitchen, while the children either fretted or rejoiced over the idea of the return of their parents. She watched Ryan now, sitting on Mickey's stool, looking so tired and fragile and being able to offer no real comfort.

"I don't know, dear," she took a step forward, taking his face in her hands "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. For now, though, I want you and Sharpay to be happy for me, okay?"

Ryan nodded.

Beverley nodded, satisfied. Kissing his head once more, she exited the kitchen, "I'm going to go talk to your sister."

Ryan sat in the kitchen, alone, and drew a breath.


	5. Chapter 4

Winona watched Sharpay as she lay on her bunk, her decoupage shrine of the latest teeny bopper heartthrob momentarily abandoned by the dramatics of her older foster sister.

The tiny child watched Sharpay for a few moments. She knew this moment. She had yet to reach it herself, but she had seen it before with the other children that had come through.

"You're not the only one, y'know," she finally said. Sharpay did not stir, so Winona continued, "What he'd use? Belt or just his fists? Everyday or just when he was pissed? Just Ryan or you too?" There was silence for a long while, harsh and thick. Winona listened to Sharpay's breathing before crawling up in bed next to her and whispering sympathetically, "Are you scared?"

Sharpay wept then. Even as Winona lifted her up and let her cry into her sweater, she wept. There was a movement and then Winona's thin arms were gone, replaced by the strong embrace of Beverley. She smelled like Pear soap and sugar cookies. Beverley rocked her and whispered her love to her and Sharpay began to feel drowsy in her arms.

"Don't worry, you don't have to visit him if you don't want to," Beverley assured her, "I promise. Everything's gonna be all right. There now."

Sharpay drew in a breath, and beleived her.


	6. Chapter 5

Mickey's screaming woke Ryan early in the morning.

In a confused panic, Ryan stumbled from bed, picking up Mickey and cradling him in his arms, hushing him. Mickey woke like this sometimes. Ryan sat down on the bed, whispering in Mickey's ear, to hush, hush, hush.

Beverley suddenly appeared in the doorway. "Is he all right?" she asked, taking Mickey up in her arms and hushing him, singing a little song. Ryan closed his eyes, letting the quiet strains of 'Golden Slumbers' wash over him. His mother used to sing it to him and his sister when they were young.

He suddenly found himself telling Beverley this, who looked down at his with sympathy, suddenly stopping her singing, Mickey now resting quietly in her arms. "No, no. Don't stop." So she continued to sing, putting Mickey back to bed and then sitting down next to him. He rested his head in her lap and curled his pajama-clad legs up towards himself.

"You're pretty scared, huh?" she asked, already knowing the answer.

"Why wouldn't I be?" he replied. There was a long silence before he spoke again, "I think I want to stay here, Bev."

"I'm glad you like it here."

"No," he said, sitting up slightly to look at her, "I mean like forever."

Beverley's face drew itself out in on sympathetic look. Ryan could see every wrinkle and line on her face, every moment of her life right there for all to see. "I'm sorry, baby, I don't know if that's going to work out."

He rested his head back in her lap. "I know."


	7. Chapter 6

Ryan woke to find himself almost magically tucked back into bed, Beverley somehow managing to do so without waking him. He stretched and wandered out of the room, throwing on a sweater as he wandered down stairs.

The children were eating breakfast at the table. Sharpay had Winona turned facing away from her so as to plait the girl's hair into three larger braids. Mickey was chattering away, singing some nonsense song. "Good morning, sleepyhead," Sharpay teased, pushing a box of cereal towards him.

"Morning," he mumbled.

He watched her for a moment, trying to see if she was still reeling from last night's new, but he couldn't tell for sure. Sharpay had her gaurd up.

Beverley smiled as she entered from the kitchen with a cup of coffee held in one hand. She kissed Ryan's head as she passed and looked up at the clock on the wall, "Twins, Winona, you better get going or you're going to be late."

In a flurry of braid-tying and cereal-shoving action, all three were upstairs, dressed and back out the door.

They rode the bus to school, Sharpay having sold her pink monstrosity of a sports car months before in a fit of sudden charity towards her foster family. She had given the money to Beverley for some of Mickey's doctor bills.

As they pulled up in front of East High, Ryan waved to Kelsi who was waiting outside the school with Martha and Zeke. Kelsi was the first to notice the worried look on the twins' faces.

"What's wrong?"

The twins drew themselves inward and spoke.


	8. Chapter 7

Kelsi feared for Ryan and Sharpay. She had been there when they came into the clinic, more purple and red than their normal pale-colored skin. Now this man, this monster that was once their father wanted to see them? To speak with them? Perhaps try to touch them? Kelsi wanted none of this for her friends.

In fact, none of the Wildcats did.

Winona, though, was a different story entirely.

It was that afternoon when she stood backstage at Ryan and Sharpay's play practice that she began to speak, slowly undoing her braids and shaking loose her curly hair. "You gonna see him?"

Sharpay stood up, watching Winona in the mirror. She studied the girl, not quite twelve years old and not quite five foot tall. She was skinnier than what was healthy, thin faced and wide-eyed. Sharpay knew from her time spent with her that there was a lot more to this girl than met the eye.

"We don't know yet," she finally answered her.

"I would," Winona said, walking up beside her and picking up a tube of mascara, "Don't you have anything to say to him?"

"Oh, I have plenty to say to him," replied an alreay-bristling Sharpay.

"Then say it. I wish I could see my daddy again," Winona said, clumsily applying eye shadow, "I got things to tell him."


	9. Chapter 8

_The song Kelsi plays is called "My Name is Luka" by Suzanne Vega. Also, i__n case you were wondering a "hidebehind" is a fairy tale creature, one is only to ever be seen out of the corner of your eye. _

_As always, thanks for reading and please review. I accept any and all kinds. Thanks. _

_--Zu_

* * *

Ryan was on stage, stretching to practice a dance number. Troy and Gabriella were in the wings, planting delicate little kisses on each other. Kelsi was at her piano, playing out a tune he'd never heard before, and more interested in that than Troy and Gabi, he wandered over. "What are you playing?"

"N-nothing," she stuttered.

He raised an eyebrow at her. "C'mon. What was it?"

She gathered her papers and reverently sent a stack of sheet music in front of her. She drew in a shaky breath. "I-I wanted to learn it for you. You and Sharpay. 'Cause..." She trailed off, leaving the sentence unfinished and began to play a still-slight jerky, moderately slow song. Shakily, quietly she began to sing.

_My name is Luka_

_I live on the second floor..._

Her song grew in strength and clarity as she continued. Her treble voice calling Troy and Gabriella from the wings. Winona appeared at her side like some kind of hidebehind. Sharpay lingered back, wanting so much for the song to end. No one spoke. Kelsi sang.

_If you hear something late at night_

_some kind of trouble, some kind of fight_

_just don't ask me what it is..._

Winona took Ryan's hand, then. He looked down at her. She looked up at him for a while, as if searching for something difficult to find, before standing on tip toe. He leaned down to her level. "Talk to him," she whispered, her breath warm in his ear and full unspoken words.

When he pulled away to look at her once again something in her face, something in Kelsi's voice, something in the way he realized he was breathing still told him to listen to her.


	10. Chapter 9

They sat across the table from him. The twins were curled into a faded wicker couch on the back porch. Behind them stood Frank the Social Worker, a tall strong figure. Beverley came out with a pitcher of lemonade.

It was cool out, and the twins struck a different image than they had a few months ago. Instead of their sequins and high fashion, they now sat in blue jeans with Ryan in a plain white T-shirt and a green button-up sweater that Beverley had pulled from a local thrift store. It was the first thrift store item he'd ever owned. Sharpay was in a pink tank top and a body wrap blanket snapped around her like a poncho.

He looked the same as he always did. Only tired. He wrung his hands, he tapped at his glass of lemonade. He cast uncomfortable glances up at Frank the Social Worker, before letting his eyes rest on the faces of his children. "Your hat is crooked," he said lamely.

"Its covering a scar," Ryan replied accusingly.

Mr. Evans stopped, nervous. He studied the twins. They were everything he'd ever hoped for in children. Hard working, intelligent, but, yet, they were not his children. The looks on their faces, the ice in their words, told him that no longer would he have the privilage of attending their plays, seeing them at breakfast or peeking in their rooms at night to watch them sleeping like he used to, what seemed like ages ago.

He opened up his hands in surrender towards them. He opened his mouth, sound escaping at first before words, long before words. "I-I'm sorry."

They wanted to scream. They wanted to cry. They wanted to fling accusations like javelins. Ryan sat up straighter in his seat, defensive and angry. Sharpay lay a gentle hand on his arm and asked, "Do you want to meet our family?"


	11. Chapter 10

Frank the Social Worker informed them that Mr. Evan's couldn't meet the rest of the family, so instead, Sharpay wandered inside and brought out a photograph. It was from a few months ago, when Beverley had packed the children into the car and drove them into the country in search of snow. They had spent the day sledding until dark, all falling asleep against each other in the car on the way home.

Sharpay watched as her father studied the photo. Something in his eyes and the way his lips came together in such a manner told Sharpay that he was aching inside. She saw him let out a shuddery sigh.

He reached across the table to them and look disturbed and hurt when Ryan flinched away and Sharpay instinctively took his hand, fingers entwined.

"You family is beautiful," he said finally.

Sharpay nodded, taking the picture from where he placed it between them on the table.

There was a silence and Mr. Evans watched as his beautiful baby boy rested his head on his twins shoulder. Every loving, fatherly feeling swelled inside of him and deflated just as quickly. Standing up he said, "It was wonderful seeing you two again. You've grown so much."

They watched him walk away. As they did, the back door flung open and Winona came running out. "Wait!" Ryan grabbed hold of her as she went running towards Mr. Evans. "Give him this!" Winona begged Sharpay, holding out a folded peice of notebook paper.

Sharpay took it and gave it to her father.

Sitting in the car on his own, he opened the little note. In slow cursive Winona had written:

Sometimes people make mistakes that hurt other people. It

doesn't make them bad. It just means they made a mistake.

You can do it. I know you can do it because you raised Ryan

and Sharpay, and people like that don't just grow out the grownd.

They're made. So you can't be all bad.

Mr. Evans folded the note and sighed, resting his head against the stering wheel. They were a beautiful family.


	12. Chapter 11

His sweater wasn't nearly warm enough. The sun was setting and a cold wind came from the mountains. The chains on the swing made a soft squeaking noise as he swung back and forth, back and forth. Eyes closed, arms thrown outward.

He had left the house maybe an hour ago. It would be time for dinner, now, Beverley would have noticed him missing. He knew that he should head back, but he couldn't, not then. So he waited. Perhaps the police would find him, perhaps one of the family; at the moment he didn't care.

His father's visit had left him sick to his stomach and wanting only to get away. So he went to the park. It was quiet and safe and everyone left the boy on the swing alone.

He looked up at the sun, setting low on the horizon, setting the sky alight. They had to be getting worried. Would he get in trouble? The thought mildly worried and interested him. He had never been in trouble with Beverley before, though he'd seen her put Mickey in time-out a few times. She would never hit them, it wasn't her way, not like it was _his _way.

The jangle of chain in the swing next to him told him he was found. The smell of rose soap and oranges told him that it was Winona who had found him. He dug his heels into the earth to stop swinging.

He didn't look up, he didn't need to. He listened as she dialed her "just for emergencies" cell phone and spoke, "Beverley? Yeah, I found him. We're at the park. Okay. Okay, bye."

There was silence after she hung up.

"You scared Beverley half to death, Ryan." He felt ashamed, then. Ashamed for having scared Beverley and ashamed that he was now being scolded by a eleven-year-old. "She started cryin' when we couldn't find you."

"I'm sorry," he said.

He sensed her nodding. "You should forgive him, Ryan." He shook his head. "I wish I did." He looked up at her for the first time, then, seeing this little girl anew as she spoke, "He only did it once or twice, but I hated him after that. When he came back, said he was sorry, I told him I hated him. That I wished he was dead."

She was silent for a long time. So very quiet and still, her curls hanging in her face, the last bit of light illuminating her with an orange light. Her long lashes rested on her cheeks. She pursed her lips, then drew then into a straight line.

"Got my wish two weeks later."


	13. Chapter 12

"Oh, Ryan!" Beverley came running up to the swings, Sharpay followed behind her, Mickey in her arms.

Beverley got to her knees in front of Ryan, taking him by the shoulders, she looked up at him. Ryan looked down. "Ryan look at me!" He did. "Don't you ever, ever do that to me again, okay?" He nodded and she threw her arms around him. "You had me so worried."

Mickey ran into his arms then. He ran his pudgy, toddler fingers around Ryan's face, as if looking for something. He had the most serious look on his face. "No owies?" he asked, brushing at Ryan's bangs.

"No," Ryan assured him, "I'm fine."

Beverley pulled Ryan back into her arms. She kissed his cheek. That was the moment that Ryan begant to weep. Quietly at first and then louder and with fervor. He cried for being ashamed, he cried for being scared, he cried for being confused. Beverley sat there with him, as it grew darker, rocking him and hushing him soothing.

It was a long while before she pulled him to his feet and led him back to their van, and drove him home. She brought him tea and sent him to bed. On his way up, he stopped in Sharpay and Winona's room.

"Decent?"

"Yeah," he heard Sharpay call, "C'mon in."

He entered slowly. Sharpay was sitting on the bed, Winona brushing out her hair. "Hi," he mumbled.

"Hey," they both replied.

"Shar, I--I wanna talk to Dad tomorrow."


	14. Chapter 13

They were to meet Frank the Social Worker and Mr. Evans after church for brunch, with Frank driving them home later.

Sharpay watched as Ryan drummed his fingers anxiously on the hard cover of the hymnal on his lap, his leg jiggling nervously. Beverley poked his leg in an effort to make him stop, but instead it caused him to yelp, drawing the attention of others in the pews. He looked around, as if to act like one wondering, _Who did that? _

He let his eyes wander up to the stained glass windows, standing out agains the plaster walls of the ancient church. A riot of color, casting rainbow reflections about the room. Below one of the windows sat the Danforth, Chad playing mindlessly with a bit blue reflection that had fallen across his arm. He moved his arm back and forth nonchalantly, his hand up and down. He caught Ryan watching him and grinned sheepishly before noticing Ryan's worried face.

_You okay? _, his looked said.

Ryan nodded. _Just fine._

Chad's look clearly stated, _Liar_.

Mr. Evans sipped coffee quietly. Frank the Social Worker and the twins sat opposite of them. The twins sipping tea while Frank drank his coffee.

"I'm can't say I'm not glad you asked to see me," Mr Evans began, fingering Winona's note the way other's would finger rosaries, "but I have to wonder why you asked?"

Sharpay looked up at Ryan. Ryan looked down at this tea.

"I..." he began, then stopped. Sharpay looked up at him expectantly. "I was angry..."

Mr. Evans nodded. "I understand."

"No! No, you can't! You can't understand!" he cried. Frank rested a calming hand on his shoulder as people in the cafe looked up at the young man make a scene in the corner. Ryan drew a breath, and began again, "You can't understand what you did to me. You were my father! You're supposed to love me!"

"I do love you--"

"Instead of loving you--you did this!" He took off his hat to show the scar that ran from the right temple up and into his hair. Mr. Evans seemed to sink back in his seat, repulsed even at what he'd done. Ryan pulled the hat back on crooked as spoke, "I--I hated you for it. I think I still hate you for it, but I don't want to. I don't want to live in hate. So, Dad, I forgive you."

Mr. Evans looked stunned. Stunned at his son's word, stunned at what he had done, stunned at the very moment, the very thing he had prayed for. He couldn't think of anything to say. He wept as he heard the words, the most beautiful words of 'I forgive you'.

Finally he wiped his eyes and spoke, "Y-your hat's crooked."

Ryan broke into a smile.

It was a start.


	15. Author's Note

Thank you so much for reading. I hope I did my readers a service.

If you would like me to continue to write for the Evans twins, Beverley, Mickey, Winona, Mr. Evans and the Wildcat gang, do drop and line and say so. And drop in some suggestions, too, for what could happen or what you would like to see. I just might use it.

Thanks a billion.

Love (and other indoor sports)

--Zu


End file.
